A textile recycling research program, backed by H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB's nonprofit arm H&M Foundation and the Hong Kong government with around €30 million in funding, claims it has made a major technological breakthrough.

The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel, or HKRITA, along with Ehime University and Shinshu University in Japan, has developed a new hydrothermal process that uses only heat, water and fractional biodegradable green chemicals to separate and recycle cotton and polyester fibers in blended fabrics — one of the most popular fabrications used in garment manufacturing.

Synthetic fibers accounted for 62.7% of global fiber consumption in 2016, while cotton made up 24.3%, according to data provided by textile giant Lenzing Aktiengesellschaft.

Textile waste has become a global concern in recent years. In the U.S., textile waste increased from over 12 million tons in 2012 to more than 16 million tons in 2014, only about 16% of which was recycled, according to the latest data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Greenpeace has criticized fast-fashion brands such as Inditex's Zara and H&M for contributing to a culture in which consumers buy tons of cheap clothing.

Hoping to find a sustainable textile solution, H&M Foundation in 2016 approached HKRITA with €5.8 million in funding for the research program, along with more than €20 million from Hong Kong's Innovation and Technology Fund.

"The aim is to develop at least one commercially viable technology to recycle cotton and polyester blend textiles into new fabrics by 2020," said Eric Bang, innovation lead at H&M Foundation. "We want a solution as fast as possible in order to save the planet's resources when the global population and middle class grow."

Using the latest hydrothermal process, polyester fibers recovered from the recycling process retain their original qualities and can immediately be used again to produce fabrics, the researchers claim. However, it is a different story for cotton fibers, which disintegrate into powder after undergoing the process.

"What we take advantage of is the reaction of different materials to different pressure and temperature," HKRITA CEO Edwin Keh said in an interview with S&P Global Market Intelligence. "Cellulosic fibers such as cotton break down at a lower temperature, become a powder form and separate from the polyester, which after being pulled out can be used as it is in its fiber form."

The hydrothermal process can only recover the polyester from fabric blends, but the new method will still solve "50% of the problem," Keh said, as that material is a prime part of the synthetic fibers that account for the lion's share of global fiber consumption.

Compared to today's most commonly used mechanical recycling method, which damages the strength of polyester fibers during the process, the new hydrothermal and biological methods offer the advantages of preserving as much of the original materials as possible and requiring less input of resources, according to Keh.

"In these self-separate processes, it's either enzyme working or heat, pressure and chemicals."

While Bang said there is no insight into H&M's specific plans to deploy hydrothermal recycling technology in its apparel production, the fast-fashion giant has set a goal to use only recycled or other sustainable materials by 2030.

He also believes that, given the varied composition and quality of textiles, future recycling efforts will be carried out through different technologies and methods that complement each other.

As part of the €30 million research program, HKRITA has also partnered with institutes in Hong Kong and the U.K. to develop a separate biological recycling process that uses enzyme hydrolysis to break down blended materials. Using this method, recycled polyester fibers can be re-spun into fibers by melt spinning for further textile application, while cotton fibers are converted into glucose that can be used for platform chemicals in other industries such as agriculture, explained Carol Lin, an associate professor in the School of Energy and Environment at City University of Hong Kong who is involved in the project.

In the next step, the research program will scale up from lab experiments to a demonstration facility in Hong Kong in order to eventually guide the design of an industrial-scale recycling factory.

Keh said one goal during this process is to make sure the recovered polyester fiber is cheaper than virgin fiber. "That's the only way this business case works," he added.

HKRITA will own the intellectual property of the technology outcome and can license it widely, including to H&M's competitors, to ensure broad market access and maximum impact.

A new and commercially viable recycling method is vital to the fashion industry by enhancing efficient reuse of textile waste, according to Guoliang Zhao, a professor of material science and engineering at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology.

"Currently, used blend textiles are often mechanically recycled and turned into low-value products such as fillers, carpets and floor mops. It's indeed a serious waste of resources," Zhao said.

While technology can potentially play a big role in textile sustainability, the fashion industry still needs self-reflection, according to Keh.

"A lot of brands are making fiber and apparel without consideration of how to recycle it at the end of its life," Keh said. "What we hope to see 10 years from now is that there will be some new standard in fiber and apparel manufacturing taking that into consideration, in which case we won't have to go through these complicated procedures to recycle mixed sources of materials. So hopefully this problem will go away eventually if we become more thoughtful of how we manufacture."